College head Andrew Thomson has been appointed as the new chief executive of the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA).

Mr Thomson will take up his post on 1 January 2005 and succeeds Chris Hughes who will retire as LSDA’s chief executive at the end of December 2004.

He has been principal of Long Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge for the past six years. Under his leadership the College has achieved top inspection grades for management and quality assurance and outstanding national performance in A-level ‘value added’ scores.

Announcing the appointment LSDA chair Sir Geoffrey Holland said Mr Thomson had "an impressive track record" with a reputation for quality improvement.

"What impressed the interviewing panel was his outstanding leadership qualities and charisma, his passion for education and training, and his ability to relate to both senior policy makers and a wide range of grass-roots practitioners from work-based learning as well as schools, colleges and adult and community education," Sir Geoffrey added.